Imagine being intimately connected with some forty-odd people who you barely know in a matter of minutes. Imagine doing something so enjoyable that you could not care less how foolish you might look by throwing yourself wholeheartedly into it. That is exactly how I felt Wednesday night when we went contra dancing. Until a little over a week ago, contra dance existed unbeknownst to me. And now it is something I wish I had had access to my entire life. I left that gymnasium with a fresh mindset, feeling more relaxed than I ever have since I left home. I spent three hours dancing face-to-face with strangers, and all my worries, frustrations, and inhibitions disappeared completely. Furthermore, I do not think I fully realized that until I sat down to write this paper. Several people in the Bloomington community welcome newcomers and experts alike to join their cohort of contra dancers, and on Wednesday night, I was one of those newcomers. Looking back on the experience, the fundamental aspects of participatory music merged in this one activity, contra dancing, to make for this incredibly wonderful experience that I will be sure to return to many times in my life.

     This experience of contra dancing is a clear representation of the dynamics of participatory music making. There was no distinction between the artist and the audience. I was aware of the fiddle, guitar, and banjo players, but the focus was not placed on them. The focus was rather dispersed throughout the entire gymnasium: each dancer was just as important as any other, and each musician was just as important as any of the dancers. A valuable and necessary half would be missing if either were not present and productive. Everyone was performing for everyone else. People of all skill levels were able, and expected, to join in the dancing. The successfulness of our group was based on its ability to accommodate differences in skill levels. At least half of the group had never experienced contra dancing while the other half knew exactly what they were doing. Even though maybe they were slightly irritated by our lack of experience, they did not kick us out on the street. Slowly, with patience for the skill diversity, the newcomers improved, showing the success of our group. The point of contra dancing, like any participatory form of music, is social bonding. And that is exactly what happened; I made many connections with people I would not have met otherwise, and I was inspired to participate in contra dancing again because of the sense of community that could be so readily felt among that cohort of people.

     A sense of flow was so easily reached in this example of participatory music making as well. Flow is such a rewarding state in which to be, and an activity that could allow for so many people to be in that state at once is so binding and vital. It allows everyone to be connected in this mutual state of enjoyment. I believe this is why I left feeling so uplifted; for those three hours, all my stress vanished. I was not worried about getting the steps perfectly; it was fun just to be learning something new. And as the night progressed, I could steadily feel myself understanding the steps and the style of the dance more and more. I began to dance less like I had two left feet if only just a tiny bit. But the ceiling for improvement is not fixed. Although I found it amazing to step back and look at how far everyone had come, how gradually we were dancing like a cohesive group, it was still clear that there is endless room for improvement. That challenge, that need to do better for the sake of the group, that flow state that is only reached through that challenge, is what makes contra dancing desirable to return to.

     Never before have I participated in such a musical event. In America, the value of participatory music making does not seem to be a collective emphasis. Only when you come across small cohorts like the one revolving around contra dance in the Bloomington community do you discover its existence in our society. But that is exactly what participatory music seeks to do: bring together the people in individual, local groups, rather than seek domination over all groups. Participatory music allows diversity within a group and diversity between all groups, so that all groups may come together and live cohesively based on their differences. This cohort in Bloomington comes together for a singular activity – contra dance – and in doing so, creates this social bonding that is so difficult to find, yet so often sought after by many Americans. And while these people come together for this activity that they know and love, they still welcome newcomers like me who wish to learn, who wish to experience new things that they could take up as habits in their lives.